Obama: The counterattack

— Senator Barack Obama's campaign has been aggressively fighting back against an independent advocacy group's TV ad linking the Democratic nominee with Ayers… The advocacy group's main benefactor is a Texas billionaire who has given money to John McCain and other Republicans and who was also one of the main funders of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which went after Kerry.

Obama's "campaign has warned TV station managers not to run the ad and has asked the US Department of Justice to intervene. The Obama camp argued that the organization, the American Issues Project, is violating the law. Fox News and CNN have declined to air the anti-Obama ad, the AP says. But by Monday afternoon, the ad had run about 150 times in local markets in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Michigan, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, an ad tracking firm."